1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of automated systems for monitoring and detecting the presence of contaminant materials, indicator parameters, and measurements related to fate and transport in order to provide rapid decisions making and warn of environmental hazards and, more particularly, to a geographical information system (GIS) based automated software (GBAS) system, which converts real-time sensor information from sensor data transmission terminals into real-time sensor data and site map representations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Underground storage tanks are used to store hazardous substances and petroleum products. If a leak occurs, these materials can enter the subsurface and contaminate ground water resources, requiring expensive assessment and remediation efforts. It is estimated that a significant proportion of the nearly five million tanks in the United States are leaking harmful products into the environment. To ameliorate this problem, the Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) has recently promulgated regulations which require that any leakage exceeding a rate of 0.05 gallons per hour be detected and contained. Although many releases have no known remedy, federal law requires monitoring of all toxic chemicals in our soil, water, and air. Current estimates for monitoring the thousands of contaminated sites are projected to exceed $60 billion over the next ten years. At present, costs for monitoring a typical toxic release site ranges from $15000 to over $200,000 per year using conventional techniques. Several thousand contaminated ground water sites are currently being monitored by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy, typically requiring hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Approximately 50-80% of the expenses go towards sampling, laboratory analyses, and reporting. When compared to conventional monitoring approaches, the present invention can save up to 70% of the overall monitoring budget by reducing sampling, analytical, and reporting requirements for customers using our systems. There are over 500 Southern California contaminated sites currently requiring ground water monitoring.
Methods for detecting leaks in storage tanks are well known in the prior art, however there is still a need for a reliable and economical method and apparatus for automated leak detection and for processing real-time sensor data in a GIS in a manner which allows for rapid decision making and reporting the spatial distribution of parameters of concern. Some prior art systems are basically data dumps (via computer port into a spreadsheet) wherein the data needs to be plotted at a later date. The prior art also includes relatively comprehensive alarm systems for tank leaks with customized software. However, there is nothing in the prior art integrating the data into a comprehensive database structure aimed at tracking trends and making decisions.
It is, therefore, desirable to have a system such as that provided by the present invention that can be applied to sensors placed in surface water bodies and air volumes to monitor the breakthrough and distribution of chemicals and biological materials of concern as well as parameters controlling migration pathway, rate and flux. Furthermore, it is desirable to have a system as provided in the present invention that can be applied to agricultural scenarios for monitoring and optimization of growing conditions based on the distribution of critical parameters.